© 2011, Small Wars Foundation April 8, 2011
Tell Me How to Do This Thing Called Design!
Practical Application of Complexity Theory to Military Operations
by Grant Martin
Since first being introduced to “Design” I, like many others, have felt that there was an
awful lot of theory and not enough practical application. Naturally, therefore, I feel sympathetic
towards those who clamor for less background theory and more operational “how to”
instructions. We are an Army of action, and there is little room, patience, or cultural tradition for
too much time thinking about things. And, honestly, too much time hesitating, thinking, or
theorizing many times will cede the initiative to those who act boldly. '”Okay”, you say: “I'll
trust your theory (or I'm just not interested in all that mumbo-jumbo), just give me what to do!!”
If that quote is something that resonates with you, then this article was written with you in mind.
Before I get into some possible practical application, I do, however, urge everyone to
read more about the theoretic underpinnings of the Design (or complexity theory) literature and
get very familiar with how other disciplines are struggling in their own lanes to address
complexity (instead of architecture- the basis for much of “Design”- however, I'd encourage
military thinkers to delve into how economics, information theory and computer science,
psychology, sociology, evolutionary biology, physics (quantum mechanics) and cosmology are
incorporating complexity theory into their own areas of study).
A cursory study of how economics, for instance, is tackling complexity would show that
although businessmen have long been innovative, used creative and critical thinking, and done
“Design”-like activities, a truly informed and discipline-wide approach to complexity has never
really been undertaken. This is fine if we want to keep on doing what we've always done and
mainly address symptoms instead of root causes. Hopefully, however, there is a critical mass of
humans who would like to progress past the current status quo with respect to trying to solve
problems.
Luckily, prior to studying complexity theory and the like I read an economics book by
Eric Beinhocker (The Origin of Wealth) that attempted to explain the basics of complexity theory
and then offered a model for building successful businesses (he assumed the world is an adaptive
complex system and that the only way to be consistently successful is to learn how to thrive in
complex environments). His main thesis was that evolutionary biology offered a very successful
and real example of how to thrive in a complex environment. In short, nature runs a tremendous
amount of different experiments without centralized control, selects those that are successful, and
then pours resources into those successful “experiments”. This “Differentiation, Selection,
Amplification” process offers no less than an operational way of using evolutionary processes to
be successful in a complex environment- and, indeed, other systems besides nature show this
evolutionary process as well (the financial, stock, bond, and business markets, for instance). The
solution is to understand this process and take advantage of the natural advantages it offers.
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